Fed. Circ. Declares Sham Patent Suit A 5th Circ. Antitrust Fight

Law360 (June 10, 2021, 9:09 PM EDT) — The Federal Circuit on Thursday sent a case over fracking technology to the Fifth Circuit, holding that the involvement of a patent fraud claim doesn’t actually give it jurisdiction over what’s clearly an antitrust case.

In a precedential order, the Federal Circuit said it doesn’t have jurisdiction over a Walker Process monopolization action — which deals with antitrust claims tied to fraudulently obtained patents — that doesn’t require the resolution of patent law issues.

“Simply put, this is not a patent case. Rather, this case purports to raise novel Fifth Circuit antitrust issues,” the opinion states. “We find it unpersuasive that…